Michelle,
I think you live in the same town as Steven Barnes, a good
African-American SF author. I'd ask him some of this stuff, since he deals
with a bit of it in his wonderful book "Gorgon Child".
-Sean
>I just finished teaching my summer course on women writers -- I focused
>on women writing speculative fiction. The books we read were:
>Frankenstein, Herland, The Female Man, Slow River and He, She, and It.
>All in all, it was a fabulous course. I had fun, responsive students who
>talked up a storm. (Nicola, they LOVED Slow River, btw, and the best
>presentations of the course were on that book).
>
>Although I didn't bill the course as "feminist" -- of course it was :-)
>Here are a couple of things from the course that
>bothered/challenged/provoked me.
>
>1. The assumption that in terms of gender equity -- "it's all getting
>better." My students had a very difficult time dealing with Russ's anger
>and the violence of some of her characters. Their way of handling it was
>to historically compartmentalize this as a "70's thing." While I could
>get them to admit/see current, specific, inequities and the constraints
>of gender roles -- nothing seemed to be able to make a dent in their
>cheery assessment and in the myth of "progress" (things are ALWAYS
>getting better). Does anyone have any idea how to deal with this issue
>in a responsible manner? Not even my rereading Russ's passage on "THE
>DOCTORINE of GRADUAL CHANGE" seemed to make lightbulbs go off.
>
>2. Their surprising puritan streak. I thought it would be the lesbian sex
>that would provoke outrage and I was ready to deal with that. But they
>objected to all the depictions of graphic sex (geez, I use to *take*
>courses based on the steamy sex scenes in the novels). They just didn't
>want explicit anyone rubbing on anyone. They took a position of -- what I
>believe to be) psuedo-tolerance, articulated something like this, "I
>don't care what anyone does in their bedroom, just don't make me read
>about it." I found it difficult to challenge (and I did try) that "don't
>ask, don't tell" philosophy.
>
>3. How to teach in a manner that respects "difference" without letting
>that shut down all discussion. For instance, one student claimed that he
>was Morman and that, in his religious view, that homosexuality was wrong
>and a sin against God. Since it was his religious view -- the students
>in his small group thought they couldn't take this up as a topic of
>conversation. I came to work with them and they were deep on a
>tangent... when I steered them back to the topic at hand (the sexual
>economy in Slow River) they were given to vague "well, everyone has their
>opinion" statements and to collective "I'll respect your beliefs and
>you'll respect mine" that couldn't get to the heart of the questions
>asked.
>
>Anyway, enough from me. I just wonder if anyone has comments,
>suggestions, discussions. My class was mainly returning students, most
>in their mid 20 - 30s... although I had two grandmothers and two 19 year
>olds.
>
>Thanks! Michelle
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________________________
>Michelle R. Kendrick
>Assistant Professor of English
>Washington State University
>14204 NE Salmon Creek Avenue
>Vancouver, Washington 98686
>(360)546-9645
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